ME 4054W – “Design Projects” Project Proposal 

Semester for which project is proposed: Spring 2013

Industry sponsored projects may require that students sign an intellectual property (patent) or confidentiality agreement.See the course coordinator or project adviser for details.

Project Title Tiny Hydraulic Power Supply

Sponsor (e.g., company) Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP)

 Adviser 1 Name Address

Phoneemail

William DurfeeMechE 2101612-626-0099wkdurfee@umn.edu 

 Adviser 2 Name Address

Phoneemail

Project Background:

One CCEFP project is to develop a powered ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) that can reproduce the torque and velocityperformance of the normal human ankle. Preliminary design work has been completed for a tiny hydraulic AFOrunning at 2,000 psi with 5 mm bore cylinders. While the portable, wearable, hydraulic power supply for the AFOhas been spec’ed for performance, design work on the supply has not been done. Information on the project:http://goo.gl/edYtG   and http://goo.gl/VGfqp  and http://goo.gl/pcd4S  and http://goo.gl/r90lE  

Project Objectives:

Design, develop and evaluate a tiny hydraulic power supply for the CCEFP powered hydraulic AFO. The supplywill contain a battery, a DC electric motor, a motor controller, a piston or vane pump and valves. The supply mustbe lightweight and exceptionally compact so that it can be worn on the belt. It is possible that the pump andintegrated valves will be custom designed and fabricated with advanced additive manufacturing methods. Beforeturning to hardware, the team must produce a detailed virtual prototype that accurately simulates the entireperformance of the system, including size, weight and fluid power efficiency. Fluid power simulations will beimplemented in SimHydraulics. Depending on time and student skills, this project may or may not result inhardware prototypes. Knowledge of fluid power (e.g. the fluid power senior lab) is helpful but not required.

Adviser: Durfee is Professor and Director of Design Education in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,University of Minnesota. Additional info: http://me.umn.edu/people/durfee.shtml  

Company Information: The Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power is a seven-university researchconsortium headquartered at the University of Minnesota. Information about the center is at  http://www.ccefp.org/.